BANDITS-MAGES present THE RESIDENTS

Retrospective exhibition in the Transpalette from April 21st to June 2nd.With The Bunny Boy Secret Room

OPENING : April 20th – Transpalette – 6 PM to 9 PM A surprise guest is expected to give a mysterious performance for the public opening.

This first retrospective exhibition of The Residents, produced by Bandits-Mages, covers the three floors of the Transpalette in Bourges. Within these walls The Bunny Boy Secret Room will physically reappear after its creation in 2008 on youtube. A deep trip into the visual and audio aesthetics of the collective, the exhibition puts rare documents and archives into perspective through performances, screenings and meetings with thinkers and contemporary artists.

EXHIBITION

first floora disc = a concept

Meet The Residents (1974)

Third Reich N’ Roll (1976) Not Available (1978)

Eskimo (1979)

Subterranean Modern (1979)

Commercial Album (1980)

The Big Bubble (1985)

Wormwood (1998)

Cdrom Bad Day On The Midway (1995)

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The Eyes Scream (1991)- John Sanborn Director: John Sanborn
Stars: Penn Jillette and Teller, The Residents

Theory Of Obscurity (2015)- Don Hardy

Hello Skinny (1986)- directed by Graeme Whifler

Melon Collie Lassie (2014)- by Don Hardy et Grame Whifler

One Minute Movies (1980)- One Minute Movies is a 1980 short film by The Residentswith Graeme Whifler, released in promotion of The Commercial Album and featuring four of its tracks, «Moisture», «The Act of Being Polite», «Perfect Love» and «The Simple Song».

The Ultimate Box Set (2012)- The UBS was announced via a YouTube video in December of 2012,
Junior’s Double Trouble Nightmare (2016) – Double Trouble is a film project by The Residents, first announced in November 2016 and currently in the «early development» phase of production. Trailer Double Trouble (2017)- Trailer for The Residents’ Double Trouble film that updates and expands Vileness Fats, their unfinished 1970’s masterpiece.

Walking Woman (2006)- Made for The Residents: Re-Viewed, an exhbition at MoMA.

bunny boy secret room

BUNNY IS BACK,
after almost ten years of absence
to stop the apocalypse with the help of witches found in Berry.
Here a new film is being made.
You can correspond with Bunny at wearedoomed666@gmail.com

second floor

The origin of the name The Residents (1969)

“In 1969, as they were driving to Sycamore Street in San Francisco where they had decided to live, The Residents’ truck broke down in the city of San Mateo. They got friendly with the English guitarist Snakefinger, who introduced them to their future mentor N. Sanada. Senada quickly exerted a strong influence on the group, especially through the development of ‘The Theory Of Obscurity’. This theory can be sum- med up as one idea from which all the others flow: the one that artists do their best work in the shade, without the influence of any audience. ” Pacôme Thiellement

In 1971, The Residents performed on open mic night at a club called «The Boarding House». They performed alongside Phillip «Snakefinger» Lithman, Bavarain Experimentalist N. Senada, and night club singer Peggy Honeydew. The full show was released 20 years later on the UWEB compilation «Daydream B-Liver». The shots are rushes from ‘It’s A Man’s Worls’, from the album George & James Brown (1984).

Ralph Records & Pore-Know Graphics

Ralph Records was the Residents’ original record label, originally founded to release Santa Dog. The name is coming from the slang phrase for vomiting, «calling Ralph on the porcelain telephone».

Georges and James in the pore-know graphics’ gallery (1984) / George Gershwin (1898-1937) and James Brown (1933-2006).

The Man In The Dark Sedan, Snakefinger (1980) – Directed by Graeme Whifler, produced by The Residents & Snakefinger, Ralph Records

I’m the man in the dark sedan / I have come to take your hand
I was sent down here to be sincere / Truthful and steadfast / I came to say that judgement day / Of man has come to pass
I’m the man in the dark sedan / I have come to take your hand
You can follow me / I guarantee to take you far away / We must leave before the eve / Of everlasting gray
I’m the man in the dark sedan / I have come to take your hand
You will leave this place and soon replace / The names of those you know / With a brotherhood that has withstood / The leeches and the snow

Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats (1972 – 1984 – …)

In 1984, The Residents discovered that video technologies had really advanced to the point where they could save their old 1/2’’ Vileness Fat movie and transfer it to VHS. They created a half-hour video from the fourteen hours of rushes, the result is called «Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats».
Even before they made Santa Dog, The Residents began work on an incredibly ambitious project: a full-length film called Vileness Fats. The group had just moved into a studio at 20 Sycamore Street, which had a completely open ground floor- just perfect, it seemed, for a sound stage. The Residents felt that film would be the ideal medium for the ideas which had been knocking around in their heads and jumped in with both feet. They were made of cardboard and the space limitations meant that each set had to be completely dismantled before the next one could be built. This, of course, affected the filming schedule and sometimes even the developing plot. By 1976, The Residents had fourteen hours of video filmed and were not even two-thirds of the way through what they had of the incomplete script.Finally, shortly after they released The Third Reich ‘N’ Roll, The Residents abandoned Vileness Fats. Not ones to let even failed projects go to waste, they proceeded to tease the outside world with stills from the film, incorporating the mysterious film that never was into their mythology.

third floor

At the start of their career, The Residents wanted to create a completely different faceless image or disguise for each new project. As the time drew near for the release of Eskimo, an album that they had worked on for four years, they felt that the band’s image had to be something special- as much unlike the punk fashion of 1979 as the album’s music. From the band’s perspective, the primary message of Eskimo was reflection, presenting humanity to itself as seen through a funhouse mirror. Finally, after much thought, the image they chose for this twisted mirror was not just an eyeball but one wearing a top hat, a formal touche to the fashionable trash aesthetic of that era.
The Freak Show (1995), at Praha / Directors: The Residents – Video: Vaclav Kucera – Stars: Laurie Amat, Wayne Doba, Vladimír Gut

This was an unusual project for The Residents. The stage show itself did not involve the group as performers. The band hired the leader of the Czech band Uz Jsme Doma («We’re Finally Home») to direct the orchestra while seven actors, singers, and dancers performed on stage under the direction of The Residents.

PORE KNOW GRAPHICS

Playfully recast in various iterations, Poor Know/Poor? No!/Porneaux Graphics has long maintained a position as producer of
The Residents’ album covers, promotional photos and other visual media. Initially created by the group for the release of 1972’s Santa Dog, Porno Graphics has existed as the domain of graphic artist Homer Flynn for the past several decades.

INSIDE THE WELL / Photographies of the concerts by Henrik Kam 25th anniversary, E-Cube and IckyFlicks

EVENTS

April 18th – Haïdouc & streaming – 7 PM

Public Live Radio Show

Cosmogol 999 of Jet FM (Nantes) presents a special live public program from The Haïdouc dedicated to Ralph Records in the company of Homer Flynn, Captain Doc of The Cryptic Corporation and manager of The Residents.

This conference is an opportunity to converse for the first time with Leigh Barbier, artist and collaborator of Industrial Light and Magic for Lucas Films (Star Wars) and The Residents, and with Homer Flynn spokesperson for The Cryptic Corporation, the company Residents’ production located in California, and graphic artist for the group.

April 27th – Haïdouc & Transpalette – 9 PM

PERFORMANCE

God In Three Persons, Show by The Residents, Joshua Brody and young artists after a one-week workshop. With the ‘post-graduate sound’ of the National Art School of Bourges. Price: €4

Access by reservation only> register by mail to production[at]bandits-mages.com before April, 25

May 9th – Haïdouc – 9 PM

SCREENING

Original screening of the three parts of Stupor Mundi by Pacôme Thiellement and Thomas Bertay, in the company of the authors.

May 10th – Transpalette & Haïdouc – 7 PM

TALK and SCREENING

A panel with Pacôme Thiellement (author), Xavier Boussiron (artist) and Jean-Philippe Renoult (sound artist and journalist), followed at 9 PM by the screening of Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932, 1hour 30) and its exegesis linked to The Residents’ world.

May 17th – Transpalette – 7 PM

THE NIGHT OF THE RABBIT

Let’s meet with a Bunny Cocktail for a meeting around the theme of the representation of the Rabbit in Cinema, followed by a screening of Harvey by Henri Koster (1951, 1h44), Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly (2001, 2h13) and other surprise films. Price: €4

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Fanzine structured around rare archives and original texts. (on sale for the price you wish to pay at the reception)

And it is rumoured that Sculpt, the film by Loris Greaud, will appear on the occasion of some clandestine rendezvous.